CVE-2019-9978
WordPress Social Warfare Plugin Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 3 May 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
The social-warfare plugin before 3.5.3 for WordPress has stored XSS via the wp-admin/admin-post.php?swp_debug=load_options swp_url parameter, as exploited in the wild in March 2019. This affects Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro.
- CVSS 3.1
- 6.1 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- EPSS
- 72.95% probability · 99th percentile
- Public exploits
- 2 in Exploit-DB · first 3 May 2019
- CISA KEV
- Listed 3 November 2021 · due 3 May 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-79
- Affected
- warfareplugins/social warfare · warfareplugins/social warfare pro
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 72.9% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9978
Public exploits (2)
Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152722/Wordpress-Social-Warfare-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163680/WordPress-Social-Warfare-3.5.2-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2019/03/zero-day-stored-xss-in-social-warfare.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://twitter.com/warfareplugins/status/1108852747099652099Third Party Advisory
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/#developersProduct
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9238Broken Link, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/vdb/SB2019032105Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46794/Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2019/03/21/full-disclosure-of-settings-change-persistent-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability-in-social-warfare/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2019/03/unpatched-zero-day-vulnerability-in-social-warfare-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/Third Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152722/Wordpress-Social-Warfare-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163680/WordPress-Social-Warfare-3.5.2-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Jun/1Mailing List
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2019/03/zero-day-stored-xss-in-social-warfare.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://twitter.com/warfareplugins/status/1108852747099652099Third Party Advisory
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/#developersProduct
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9238Broken Link, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/vdb/SB2019032105Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46794/Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2019/03/21/full-disclosure-of-settings-change-persistent-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability-in-social-warfare/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2019/03/unpatched-zero-day-vulnerability-in-social-warfare-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-9978US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.